I have been planning a tiki tour for quite some time with my friends right before the Oasis. 2 different southern California tiki bars per day. The first bar each day would be the lunch stop from around noon or 1 to 3 or 4. Then we will be going to close out (or do our very best) the second bar, getting there at like 9 or 10. We are spacing them out so that we do not have too much fun at the first and don't make the second. It is starting on the 14th of August and ending at the Oasis.

I started planning this with a bunch of my friends. They all backed out, so I obviously need cooler friends... I was expecting to have a group of around 8-12 people. Turns out we only are at 3 that are in it for the long haul.

Here is what we are doing and when-

Tiki Tour order

Tuesday August 14th

-Don the Beachcomber

-Purple Orchid

Wednesday August 15th

-Trader Vic - Beverly hills

-Tiki Ti

Thursday August 16th

-Bahooka

-Tonga Hut

Friday August 17th

-Trader Sams

-Bali Hai

Saturday August 18th

-Tiki Oasis tiki convention

So since we are only 3 people, I decided to post this here and give anyone who might want to go with us the chance. So if you live near by one of these tiki bars, stop by and say hi! If you have enough time on your hands on such short notice, meet us at all of these places. If you can't make any of the tiki stops, check back on this thread and join us virtually. Either way, we would appreciate your support! You don't have to buy us a drink, (although you can and we would be greatful) you can just wave at us or yell out SoCal Tiki Tour! This will be our first time at the Oasis as well. We are all excited to go.

I will be posting what drinks I have and what I think of them whenever we have internet access. We are going to stores that sell tiki stuff on our downtime as well. So far we will be going to Oceanic Arts and Wacko for sure, but if you have a good place that we should go for mugs or tikis, let me know and we will try to make it.

So here is what we look like...
Mrs. Claus will not be in attendance...

I think this is what we will look like if you see us after a couple drinks.

Yeah, so looks like MRS. Claus will be attending the Don the Beachcomber Mai Tai Fest in Kona to show his support for the SoCal Tiki Tour.

I will be keeping track of the drinks, but if you are on Hawaiian time and I am on Cali time, chances are I will be drunk before you. I will do my best to record some of the finale for ya so that we can unite Southern California and Southern Hawaii! I made a photobucket account under lunavideogames where you will be able to check out any photos or video I don't post. You should definately post yours somewhere as well.

So the first day of the SoCal Tiki Tour went well. We waited on Don the Beachcomber to open at three, so we decided to stop at Billy's for lunch in Newport Beach.

It was our first time at Billy's and it was what we expected from the look of the place from the PCH. It was nicely furnished with lots of tikis. Tiki tiles in the bathroom and tiki door handles were very cool. You are forced to valet park even at noon which cost us $4 plus tip I ordered fish tacos. They were tasty but it was strange that they came with fries. We asked the waitress for the wifi password and she told us that she didn't know it as she typed away on an iPad. The average age of the customers was around 70 and we brought that average down.

Billy's
Navy grog **

Then we made a stop at the beach for a bit and went to Don's. Matt our mixologist was very friendly and helpful. He gave us a tour of the whole establishment. He went above and beyond by giving us some of his personal lunch. Fresh caught fish with fried rice. Drinks were great and the food was great. We bought some mugs and chilled at the bar for hours. Ran into Soccertiki and Woohoo wahine. It was good to meet some people from the forum. Our whole time at Don's was a great experience.

Don the Beachcomber
Mai tai ****1/2 - My favorite, but the mint was forgotten, my fault I am sure. Also it is premixed so I had to take away half a blowfish, but they are still the best!
Navy grog ***** - This was a great drink. Even better than Bali Hai which is one of my favorite drinks there.
Missionaries downfall ***

After that we checked into our hotel and grabbed some dinner. Walked over to the Purple Orchid. The furnishings were cool. The bar itself was really cool and decorated with tons of art. We were the only ones there celebrating tiki. No one else ordered any tiki drinks besides us. The bartender was very nice and helpful. They served our drinks in Tikifarm Rum Belly mugs which was awesome! I have never been to a tiki bar where they serve you from mugs that are more expensive than the drinks inside them. That will add to my rating of the drinks. The drinks were nothing special unfortunately. But if I lived in El Segundo I would definitely be here all of the time.

Purple Orchid
Mai tai **
Scorpion in a volcano bowl ***

So I think we might have to go to the downtown Trader Vic's for lunch today, since the Beverly hills one does not open til 5. Then we are off to Tiki Ti where we are meeting up with a couple more people.

My drink rating system is one to five * (which are blowfish). Five blowfish is the best score and one blowfish is the worst.

Can't upload pictures from an iPad. I guess pictures will be added this weekend.

Luckily we made it out of El Segundo with our wallets. On to Trader Vic's.

This downtown Los Angeles Trader Vic's would be a fun place to go if you are waiting to get into the Staples center. I don't want to talk badly about a business especially one that decorates with tiki totems, but I do want to give my opinion. I liked the food that we had. I had a burger but they didn't put cheese on it which I would have liked. This was my second time getting drinks here. Basically the same experience twice. I don't think the drinks are good at all. I guess I am a Don's guy. I have tried 4 different drinks here and they are all too sweet and they don't seem to "blend" the flavors together well. I just had one drink this time and cut my losses. So in my opinion, don't travel to this place. If you find yourself stranded in front of it, and you are sick of the yardhouse, you should give downtown LA Trader Vic's a try.

Trader Vic's downtown
Navy Grog *

After that we had some dinner and made it to Tiki Ti at 7:30. Always an exciting time at Tiki Ti! Congratulations to Mike Jr on his new daughter born on Sunday! The next generation might hold a female bartender at Tiki Ti! It was an extra special toast this Wednesday. Everyone was in great spirits and it seemed like everyone was going to the Oasis. Lots of people coming and going and it was crowded as usual. I young guy fainted and face planted right next to our table. That was the action for the night. I bet my record on how many drinks I have had at Tiki Ti in one sitting. 4 drinks in the four hours we sat there. Sure I was trying to go slowly, but I wanted to make the best stop on the SoCal Tiki Tour last. All of the drinks were great as always. Everyone liked them and my brother joined us for yesterday and today. Should be another great day for rum and fun!

Well, national rum day was a blast! Hope yours was good. Beat my daily record for the Tiki Tour with a whopping 9 tiki drinks in one day!

We woke up and went straight to Bahooka. This place was awesome. Totally decked out with tons of aquariums, surface to air cannons, bucket lights and kitten puzzles. It is like a tiki dreamland. If you haven't been here, go as soon as you have a chance. They have fish there that are older than me. Got a mug of course, and we ordered some drinks. I liked the fact that they had more drink options than food options. The food was pretty cheap and the portions were big. Not amazing but not bad either. Our waitress was very friendly and told us all about the place and it's history. I didn't know that it was Bahooka at the beginning of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Anyway, I loved the decorations and it gave me a lot of ideas about how I should set up my own bar. We ordered the three food items that had tikis around them.

Bahooka
Mai Tai ***
Navy Grog ***1/2

Ruffus
Bar

I forgot to add the Oceanic Arts stop after Bahooka. Oceanic Arts is AMAZING! If you have not been there you should go next time you have a chance. I kept the spending to under $200 because of Tiki Oasis, but I found a bunch of cool things for my Tiki Bar. Ended up with a harpoon as well.. Everyone was super friendly as always. They gave us some freebies too. Very nice people.

They told me my wife was too pretty to harpoon, but she demanded it.

After that we had a special guest stop, Tiki No! I liked the set up of this place. We got food at the food trucks that are there every Thursday. Some of their drinks reminded me of drinks that I had at Rum Fire in Waikiki. Had a good time and drank a couple drinks.

Tiki No
Rum Pot **** - Recipe: Low Ball glass filled with ice, fill 10 Cane rum up 3/4 of the glass then top off with equal parts Lemon and Honey
Zombie ***

Took a taxi straight from there to Tonga Hut. At first glance it seemed to be not as decorated as other bars. But that is the problem with the tiki tour. You will always judge harsher later. Not all bars can look like Bahooka. Not all drinks can taste like Tiki Ti's. Everyone there was drinking tiki drinks. Lots of people were working on their beachbum lists which I thought was really cool! The bartender was really nice. My brother had one drink and had to leave the tiki tour at that point. A-Bomb joined us for a drink and was the fifth official member of the SoCal Tiki Tour 2012. We all had lots of fun at the Tonga Hut and we would go back for sure.

Friday was a fun day. A little bit of driving, but no problems. We made it to Trader Sam's at around 1. The parking situation is crazy, but luckily we finagled free parking. Free parking at Disneyland might be difficult but it is possible.

My first thoughts were that Sam's looks really cool. I walked around and looked at all the art. Lots of funny quotes with Disney humor. It worked well. Grabbed a bowl and got some swizzle sticks. All of the action that goes on when you order the drinks is really cool. They had 3 different things that would happen when you ordered 3 different drinks. They also lowered my bar stool at one point after a couple drinks then raised it again 5 or so minutes later. Very fun! Our bartender, Rhonda I believe, was great! Super fun and helpful. We saw her at the Oasis as well. She even made me a Navy Grog that was not on the menu. Maybe she saw my post:)

Then for dinner we went to Bali Hai. This is our local tiki venue. We live like 2 miles away so we go here all of the time. Some friends joined us for our last tiki stop before the Oasis. It was Kelly's birthday and our friends Matt & Kim just got engaged! So there was much celebration! I like the drinks here. I almost always get a Mai Tai then a Navy Grog. The Grogs here are GREAT! It was my favorite Grog until I tried one at Don's. Now I guess Don the Beachcomber has my favorite Mai Tai and Navy Grog!

Bali Hai
Mai Tai ****
Navy Grog *****
Rum Runner ** - I tried something new, but it didn't work out. I also like the Mojito at Bali Hai quite a bit.

This was our first time going to the Oasis and we all had fun! I had wanted to go for a few years now, but I was always working. We didn't really know what to expect. I think next year we would do it a little different, but only because we live just a few miles away. I would think that the best way to go would be to get there at 2ish and do all of your shopping. Then go to the beach until 6 or so and go back and watch all of the bands. We went to some fun room parties at the end of the night too.

So the SoCal Tiki Tour was a sucess! We had a total of 9 people that went to at least one stop. 3 were in it for the long haul. Lots of rum and fruit juice!?! Will there be a SoCal Tiki Tour 2013? I don't know. I guess we will see who is interested. My wife and I with the help of our Hilo friends pretty much did a Hawaii Tiki Tour in January. We may look at new locations...

So thus ends the SoCal Tiki Tour 2012. 5 days and 32 tiki drinks that I remember. Tried that Ron de Jeremy rum in tiki hell and I've gotta say it was pretty good. Not really a fan of eating or drinking things named after porn stars, especially male porn stars, but it was smooth and no chaser needed.

So here are some funny tiki bar facts that we found out. These are just based on random bars at random times.

Favorite musicians played:
Elvis is first and Dick Dale is second

Favorite songs we heard at more than one bar:
Sleepwalk - Santo and Johnny - my favorite surf song
Runaround Sue - Dion and the Belmonts - seemed like every place was on an oldies kick
Jump in the Line - Harry Belafonte - oddly enough it seemed like we heard lots of songs off the Beetlejuice soundtrack

Things that are the most important when planning your own tiki tour:
Toothbrush with a lot of tooth paste - very important!
Pepto bismol - my wife swears by it but I never had a need
Water - stay hydrated so that you can drink more tiki drinks

I hope this has helped others plan their own tiki tour. It was fun and by the end we were all exhausted. I am going to take a break from drinking for a bit...